Around 109 worshippers have been killed and another 100 injured after fears that police charged a crowd causing a stampede.

The Hindu festival-goers started to panic as they crossed a narrow bridge and then tried to escape.

The dead are mostly women and children who were unable to escape the crowd and were crushed to death.

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Indian villagers on tractors move past bodies of victims of a stampede on a bridge across the Sindh River in Datia district in Madhya Pradesh state, India

The bridge across the river Sindh was narrow, 500m long and had just been rebuilt following a stampede in 2007

The dead included 42 women, 30 children and 17 men who were crossing the bridge towards a temple

Deputy inspector general DK Arya appeared to deny that officers had caused the tragedy, saying police wielding sticks had charged the crowd in an effort to contain the panic at Ratangarh in Madhya Pradesh state.